A filter bag collects debris that is removed from household surfaces by a vacuum cleaner. The filter bag has a mounting collar with an opening that provides access to the interior of the bag. The bag is removably mounted on a vacuum cleaner fill tube by insertion of the fill tube through the opening in the collar.
A prior art mounting collar 10 is shown in FIG. 1A adjacent a section of a vacuum cleaner fill tube 11. The collar 10 has a rigid frame 12 with an inner edge 14 defining an opening 16. The inner edge 14 defines a circle that is interrupted by the top and bottom ends 18 and 20 of a tab 22 that extends across the opening 16. The bottom end 20 of the tab 22 is narrow and thus easily torn away from the frame 14. An elastomeric diaphragm 24 located behind the tab 22 extends across the opening 16. The diaphragm 24 has a slit 26 in the shape of a figure eight, as shown in FIG. 1B.
The fill tube 11 can be inserted through the opening 16 of the frame 12 and through the slit 26 in the diaphragm 24. In this process, the tube 11 tears the bottom end 20 of the tab 22 away from the frame 12. The tab 22, pivoting about its top end 18, is pushed through the slit 26 of the diaphragm 24 along with the tube 11. As shown in FIG. 2, the diaphragm 24 is elastically engaged about the tube 11. The tab 22 is lodged in-between the tube 11 and the diaphragm 24.
The present invention is a mounting collar for supporting a vacuum cleaner filter bag in a mounted condition over a vacuum cleaner fill tube. The fill tube has a cylindrical outer surface. A panel of the mounting collar is configured to be attached to the filter bag. The panel has a first inner edge defining a first opening for receiving the fill tube. An elastomeric diaphragm of the collar extends across the first opening. The diaphragm has a second inner edge defining a second opening. The second inner edge is configured to be elastically stretched circumferentially about the fill tube and to be in contact with the cylindrical outer surface about the entire circumference of the cylindrical outer surface when the first opening receives the fill tube. A lobe of the diaphragm is defined by the second inner edge and a baseline. The baseline extends from a first point on the second inner edge to a second point on the second inner edge and is located entirely on the diaphragm.
In an embodiment of the invention, the lobe is defined by a section of the second inner edge and the baseline, and the section is arcuate. The distance between any two points on the inner edge is less than the diameter of the fill tube. An infinite line containing the baseline does not extend across the second opening, and the height of the lobe is shorter than the length of the baseline in an original condition of the diaphragm. The entire area of the lobe is stretched and elastically pressed against the tube when the first opening receives the fill tube.
Preferably, the second opening includes a slit. The slit is defined by two sections of the edge that engage each other along their lengths in the original condition of the diaphragm. Two opposite ends of the slit are the most distantly separated locations on the slit. An infinite line containing the baseline does not extend across the second opening, and the slit does not extend into the lobe.